George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to your question, Senator Xenophon, is: because of the urgency of replacing HMAS Success, which is rapidly approaching the end of its operational life. As I said a moment ago, the former Labor government knew that, but they did nothing to ensure that the Success would be replaced by a ship commenced and built in an Australian shipyard. But I will tell you, Senator Xenophon, what we have done. You as a South Australian senator would well know this. Last week, the cabinet meeting in Adelaide announced that we would be bringing forward the Future Frigate program and that all of the future frigates would be built at the ASC shipyards in Adelaide—the biggest naval shipbuilding project in Australian history ever, brought forward by two years and commenced in Adelaide. That is the way this government is dealing with the legacy left to us by the former Labor government.